


You're Alright

by pirategirljack



Category: izombie
Genre: Comfort, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-20
Updated: 2015-04-20
Packaged: 2018-03-25 01:01:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3790771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pirategirljack/pseuds/pirategirljack
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ravi hopes he can save Liv from the worst of herself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're Alright

Ravi tried his best not to panic, but while he liked to consider himself a man of action, this was not the sort of action he preferred. They'd beat him up and thrown him into a shipping container that had been crudely converted to a barely habitable living space. He was bleeding, his ribs felt half-broken, and he couldn't seem to catch his breath--and all of that together made it very hard to be rational and to figure a way out.

The door opened again and he saw a flash of white--Liv!--and for a moment he thought everything would be fine, she would save him, they'd escape together.

And then he saw her face.

Her eyes were entirely red and black, sunken and dark-veined. Her lips were pulled back from her teeth in a savage growl. Her hands, too, were transformed, more like claws than hands, and though her hair was still snowy, pure white, her skin looked sickly and yellow, like old paper.

"Liv," he said, all his worst sorrows in the name. "Liv, no. What've they done to you?"

"It's what she's gonna do to you that you need to worry about," the henchman said, sneering. And then he slammed and blocked the door. Liv threw herself at the metal door, the walls, howling, leaving streaks of her own blood where she scratched at them, where she left fingernails behind because she couldn't feel pain like this--and then she turned on him.

There was nowhere to run. Nothing at all to hide behind. Ravi had never been so afraid in his life, and the fact that it was Liv, his coworker, his friend, the woman he-- the fact that it was Liv made it so much worse.

"I know you're still in there somewhere," he said, holding his hands up half-defensively and half to show he wasn't a threat, "I know you are, because if you weren't, you'd've already attacked. P-please Liv. Please. Come back. I'm not going to fight you. I'm hurt, and I don't stand a chance anyway."

He got down on his knees. His side hurt so much he was seeing spots, plus he'd read somewhere that if you were faced with any dangerous predator, being shorter than them was a show of submission. Even kneeling, he wasn't much shorter than her, and he hoped it was enough. He hoped zombies were that sort of predator. She crept up on him, her hands grasping and her teeth snapping, but her feet moving slowly. He hoped it meant she was fighting herself, that she was still in there, hearing him.

"Please don't do this, Liv. You're good," he said, the way he had before, "you're good. You're still you."

She was close enough to touch him now, and while she still inched closer, she still hadn't attacked. He took that as a sign. Ravi closed his eyes, squeezed his lips together, and wrapped his arms around her waist, snuggling his head against her chest under her chin where he could hear her heart. It wasn't beating. And he'd effectively delivered his brain to her mouth. But if he was going to die, it was going to be on his terms, and he wanted to go out on an act of love and trust.

Her hands spasmed and clamped onto his head, her fingernails pressing into his scalp painfully--but not breaking the skin. She wasn't breathing, so he couldn't feel her breath against his hair, but he could feel her shoulders, her neck bending toward him, wrapping her around his offering.

"I trust you, Liv," he said, his eyes still closed. "I know this isn't what you want."

Her teeth were against his scalp now. And then he heard a heartbeat. And another. She made a noise like a sob, deep in her chest, and the pressure of her nails and teeth melted into desperate hands smoothing and clutching, into a soft face buried in his hair.

"Ravi..." She breathed, barely a word, and he held her closer still, as close as he could, smothering his own trembling by trying to ease hers. She was crying, and he wasn't entirely sure that he wasn't, too.

When they finally pulled apart just enough that he could look into her face, he was glad to see that it was Liv's face he was looking into, not a monster's. He tried to smile. "Welcome back to the living," he said.

Her hands were on his cheeks, small and thin and human again. "I almost killed you."

"But you didn't."

"How did you know? How did you know I was still me?"

"I didn't. But I hoped." He ran his hand down the whole length of her spine, from the back of her neck all the way to her tailbone and back up, soothing her, easing her still-shaking tenseness.

"Why? Why do you believe in me so much?"

He almost said the real reason, the one he'd promised himself he'd never say out loud because it could never come to anything until he found a cure. He wanted to. But instead, he said, "Because you're my friend, and it's basically my job to believe in you when you don't believe in yourself."

She looked like she had a lot more to say, but instead of saying it, she lowered her face and kissed him on his forehead. Her lips were soft, and the kiss had as much feeling in it as most of his real kisses, and he was glad he wasn't standing, because his knees went weak. For a moment, they held each other again.

It was the sweetest moment of his life.

Then she said, "I'm starving, and keeping control is getting really hard, so whatta ya say we bust out of here?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

They unwound from each other, more carefully than they needed to, with more patting and smoothing than was necessary, and then she turned on the door and got them out.

**Author's Note:**

> My first iZombie fic! Maybe the first ever?
> 
> \--  
> If you're curious, My mailing list is here: http://eepurl.com/bjHU3T


End file.
